The Fire Element Series

First up on our journey of creative exploration is the fire element series. This particular series came as a very specific desire from our makeup artist Coco to tap back into her Creative Director roots. Utilizing some connections and inspiration which she found, Coco took to gathering all the items needed to create her vision. As per usual, Adorned In Taji joined us for this venture. We each have a very healthy working relationship and collaborate on projects often. For this we wanted to tap into the very spiritual and often wild aspect of the fire element.

Light it up!

During our setup, we chose a location that was flame retardant because an intention was to light a large amount of fabric on fire. As can be seen in some of the images, the draping and height of the fire rose to roughly 20ft tall. Contrarily, the other elements included in the shoot were a bit more subdued and intentional. You will see a blade, cowrie and copper, as well as intentionally lined candles. Each of these elements served to add to the mystery and spirituality of the visual sequence.

Our shoot turned out to be more of a test of patience during set up due to the 100 candles used. Timing and setting these was crucial so as not to have any burn out too quickly. The shot list was very simple, but I wanted to utilize gobos to add an extra focus to the face in a few frames. This was achieved by utilizing the strip gobo to light across the eyes of the subject. Check out our next project “The Earth Element Series” and watch our theme shift and progression.

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